I think you just bought into the hype...

if you bought the car cause it was going to be "limited production"... i think that's the wrong idea.

 

Hey. It may have taken me about a half a day to understand what you meant, but now I get it. Yes. I meant population.

 

Does anyone here have an idea of how actual sales compare to projected sales worldwide? I frequent the Miata forum and Bob Hall, one of the key developers for the Mazda Miata concept and an automotive journalist stated that while US S2000 sales are doing well, European and Japanese sales have been way below target projections and Honda will likely discontinue the S2000 after next year. Normally I wouldn't trust a journalist who hears rumors, but his sources are quite reliable and he did get to test drive the S2000 prototype, 2 JDM-spec S2000s, 1 Aus-spec S2000, 1 US-spec S2000, and got to spend a whole entire week with a Spoon S2000. Lucky bastard.

Whether the S2000 gets d/c or not, couldn't care less, I got mine already.

 

Total monthly output for world markets, including Japan, Europe and the U.S., is said to be 2,000 units, or 100 units per day on two shifts.

Japan's sales have gone from 7,209 (intro year) to 1,913 (last year) but they have had a very bad economy. European sales went from 1,179 (first year) to 2,195 (last year), so they are increasing. US sales have shown a small decline, for the first time, in the past three months (about 8%). US sales last year were 9,682 and projected at 12,000 this year. But, with the exception of Feb, they are very very close to the 1,000 units per month goal. Considering the Tochigi factory produces the S2000, NSX, and Insight . The demand for the other nich vehicles could be a bigger issue than any real drop off in demand. However, historically any car, no matter how great, usually sees drops by the fourth year. In any case, they are 85% of goal YTD. Hardly an issue with summer coming on.

Bob Hall has a great sense of humor and ego to go with it. For 12 year's all he has heard is fellow Miata owners crying for more hp - while all the time he trys to defend the car, as is. He must have crapped his pants when he saw what Honda had done. More aggressive styling, double the hp, and only $10k more. I'll bet Bob's been on the phone to Japan every day since. He can only WISH that S2000 production will stop.

 

This is funny. Indeed he has tried to defend the low hp output of the Miata ("If you can't go fast 90 hp, 900 hp won't help"). Now that the upcoming 3rd gen NC Miata will have more hp (possibly ~200hp) and a bigger engine (2.3L engine?), many Miata owners are screaming too much hp and too big of an engine and Bob has been trying to defend the rumors around the new Miata. Bob's sweating bullets as Mazda is repeating the mistakes of the 3rd gen RX-7 of higher costs and higher hp which led to its unfortunate demise.

He seems to love the engineering aspect of the S2000 ("brilliant technical exercise") but hates its ergonomics ("failed in its execution"). What can you expect? A normal father will always love his child more than his friend's kid despite achievements and shortcomings.

 

So true. And, as there's no perfect kid -- there's no perfect car (Miata, S2000, or any other for that matter). But if we learn to appreciate what we have, life's a lot more enjoyable.

 

 

DILIGAF

 

Mine was made in 7/'99

 

Since US sales didn't start until 9/99, that has to be one of the earliest in the states.